March 13, 2015

I find this kind of thing both disappointing and disturbing. See this report from the website of the Greek broadsheet, I Kathimerini:

Defense Minister and junior coalition partner leader Panos Kammenos
declared Thursday that Greece’s ties with Israel remain strong following
talks with a visiting delegation from the American Jewish Committee.

When Syriza came to power there was open panic among zionists about how bad they might be for Israel. Here's the Jerusalem Post under the headline, The victory of Syriza in Greece is bad news for Israel.:

The party has constantly identified itself with the Palestinian cause
and its program includes a demand for abolition of Greece’s military
cooperation with Israel and the support for the creation of a
Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.

Oh no, support for the so-called two state solution! More astute Israel advocates made an issue of the explicit antisemitism of the leader of Syriza's junior coalition partner, Panos Kammenos, with Brendan O'Neill at Jewish News wringing his hands and asking, Why’s the left silent on Greek coalition with anti-Semitic party?

Well now everything in the garden is rosy because the antisemitic party that O'Neill was so concerned about is on Israel's side. No doubt the antisemitism will be forgiven and conveniently forgotten. I Kathimerini again:

In a statement issued after the talks with Kammenos and other Greek
government officials Thursday, the AJC said the main topics discussed
included “efforts to achieve progress in Greece’s dramatic economic
situation” and “attempts to combat anti-Semitism, including the neo-Nazi
Golden Dawn political movement.”

The statement referred to
“excellent meetings” with Greek officials who expressed an understanding
“of the importance of the strategic partnership between Greece and
Israel.”

Now naturally I'm disappointed that the Syriza government in Greece is to continue business as usual with the illegitimate entity, Israel, but the disturbing thing is that the announcement was made to an American Israel lobby group, the American Jewish Committee. Why are they conducting foreign policy business between Greece and Israel?